Cause sought for Southwest crash at LaGuardia

Jul. 24, 2013
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A Southwest Airlines flight slid to a halt Monday at New York's LaGuardia airport after its nose gear collapsed while landing. Federal investigators are searching for the cause. / Andy Jacobsohn, Getty Images

by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

Federal investigators decided Tuesday to pursue a full investigation of the Southwest Airlines jet that had its nose gear collapse while landing at New York's LaGuardia airport because of the amount of damage to the plane.

The National Transportation Safety Board is searching for reasons why the front gear of the Boeing 737-700 didn't support the nose of the jet as it landed Monday on a flight from Nashville.

Investigators released a picture Tuesday of the jet's electronics bay, where the landing gear punctured it. Investigators are examining the jet's data and cockpit-voice recorders in Washington.

"Southwest 737's nose gear collapsed up and into the fuselage, damaging the electronics bay that houses avionics," the NTSB said in a statement.

Ten people suffered injuries in the accident that temporarily closed the airport and canceled hundreds of flights. The emergency slides deployed correctly, in contrast to problems with two slides in the July 6 Asiana Airlines crash that inflated inside that jet.

Witnesses described Southwest's jet landing without its nose gear properly extended, scraping its nose 2,175 feet along the runway before coming to rest on a grassy area next to Runway 4.

More than 350 flights were canceled Monday and 170 canceled Tuesday by 1:30 p.m., according to the flight-tracking service FlightStats, although some of the Tuesday cancellations were blamed on weather. United and Delta, the country's two biggest airlines, waived change fees.